IT Security Awareness Day 2009 (ITSA09)

To spread the message of the importance of Information Security among their peers - that was the goal the Year 1 and 2 students from the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) set themselves when they got together to organise the IT Security Awareness Day 2009 (ITSA09). This event has been a regular affair conducted every year by the DISM students since the start of the diploma in 2006.

This year, ITSA09 was held on 2 Dec 2009, Wed, at MLT12. Before the seminar started, the DISM students set up fringe activities where they demonstrated simulated hacking to show how unprotected PCs can be compromised easily. Student organiser Hanley Shun felt “that the fringe activities had proved to be a useful idea in bringing the message across to people”.

Station Inspector Dominic Theseira from the Singapore Police Force came to share with students on the current trends in cybercrime. He peppered his talks with real-life cases and emphasized on penalties that the criminals received for their illegal acts. Mr Dominic Theseira shared with the audience the legal liability that the Internet poses and the need to be more aware and careful with their activities on the Internet. The talk drove home the message of safe and responsible surfing.

Mr Joel Neo from Fei Yue Community Service shared with students about keeping personal information confidential in social networks. He also highlighted the importance of responsible blogging and the implication of sharing one's thoughts in a public domain.
Apart from the informative talks, the audience enjoyed the games conducted during the seminar. Students were asked to unscramble words, break codes, and guess information security phrases and many walked away with prizes.

Grooming Ethical Hackers for Singapore's Workforce

Singapore Polytechnic Students first in Singapore to Embark on EC-Council Academia Learning Solution.

November 2, 2009 – Singapore Polytechnic (SP), will be the first institute of higher learning in Singapore to incorporate EC-Council programs into its existing courses; the Part-Time Specialist Diploma (E-Commerce Technology) and the Certificate of Competence in Information Technology (Infocomm Security).

EC-Council is a member-based organisation that certifies individuals in various e-business and security skills. It is the owner and developer of the world famous Certified Ethical Hacker course, Computer Hacking Forensics Investigator program, License Penetration Tester program and various other programs offered in over 60 countries around the globe.

Said Dr. Timothy Chan, Director, School of Digital Media and Information Technology (DMIT) of Singapore Polytechnic, “Integrating EC-Council programs into our courses is a step that underlines SP’s legacy, which is developing a professional workforce with specialised skills for the country. As we steadily evolve into a fully knowledge-based economy, we acknowledge the increase in demand for manpower with expertise in the information security sector. We are confident that EC-Council qualifications will fortify our students’ knowledge and skills, making them stand out from the rest.”

Students taking the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) at SP will also be the first to receive scholarships and awards totaling S$45,000 from EC-Council. The scholarships & awards are made possible with the signing of a Memorandum of Co-operation (MOC) between DMIT and EC-Council last week.Under this MOC, three scholarships valued at $2,500 each will be awarded annually over the next five years to deserving SP students taking the full-time diploma course.

In addition, the organisation will also reward a $1,000 graduation award and a $500 EC-Council Circle of Excellence Award to exemplary students during the same period.On top of that, SP will be the first polytechnic to offer EC-Council courses to students under the Academia Partner Program.

In line with the MOC, SP’s School of DMIT has become an EC-Council Academia Partner and an Accredited Training Centre that will offer EC-Council professional certification training programs.EC-Council will be providing reference materials and publications related to information security, which will be accessible to students at the DMIT’s Infocomm Security Labs. There will also be opportunities for knowledge sharing, staff exchanges and engagements between both parties.

Six SP lecturers have successfully completed the world-renowned Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) program recently and another two final-year students are set to undergo the training as well, making them the first SP lecturers and students to join the global community of certified EC-Council members, currently standing at over 26,000 across more than 60 countries.

“In this era of K-economy, EC-Council recognises the need to nurture more information security personnel and experts. There’s no better way to do so than paving the way for a group of deserving students who aspire to be part of the information security community. As such, we are immensely pleased to have Singapore Polytechnic as one of our education partners”, said Mr. Sean Lim, Vice President of EC-Council.

AISP Affiliate Student Chapter

1 Nov 2009. DMIT and AISP signed the agreement to set up an Affiliate Student Chapter in DMIT which would allow students the opportunities to network with information security professionals in the industry.

AISP is a non-profit organization registered with the strong support of Singapore Computer Society (SCS) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (iDA). It aims to transform information security into a distinguished profession and build a critical pool of competent information security professionals who subscribe to the highest professional standards.

In this agreement, the benefits provided to DMIT and students are:
a) Entitlement to attend selected AISP events
b) Regular email announcement and on-line publications
c) Opportunities for networking with information security professionals in industry and students from AISP Affiliate Chapters at other Institutions of Higher Learning
d) Provision of speakers for talks and seminars organized by DMIT

Hack-In-The-Box Security Conference 2009

The IT Security Competition: Weapons of Mass Destruction

15 Oct 2009 - "The Capture-The-Flag (CtF) competition at the Hack-In-The-Box (HITB) Security Conference was held on 7th and 8th October 2009 at the Crowne Plaza Mutiaria Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nine teams from seven countries, namely, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and USA, participated in this highly popular team-based IT security competition.

Seven students from the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) participated in the CtF competition. It was truly an enriching experience as our student team was competing against seasoned IT security professional teams. It was like a David-and-Goliath competition. Undaunted by their more experienced competitors, our students fought tooth and nail and tried to apply what they have learnt in their DISM course. After two days of defensive and offensive game plays, our team was ranked 5th out of the nine teams, ahead of Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and one of the Korean teams.

This year, the theme of the game was entitled as “Weapons of Mass Destruction.” The main idea behind this competition was to allow the participating teams to gain access into prepared computer servers (representing a country) in order to retrieve marked files or flags (representing warheads) on these target machines. Participants would also be required to defend their systems from attack. Teams would be judged on both their defensive as well as the offensive game plays.

Through this CtF competition, our students were able to measure how far they have advanced in their IT security knowledge and skills. Said Md Daniel Bin Hamid, a 2nd year DISM student, "The CtF competition exposed the students to how application programs can be cracked and the knowledge required to perform reverse engineering on daemon programs to capture the flag. All in all, it was a wonderful and exciting experience.”

Another DISM student, M Rubern Chakravarthi, commented on his experience gained, “I learnt more about my classmates and their capabilities in an environment outside the classroom.”

For our students, It was indeed a valuable learning experience in the CtF competition.

The Art of IT Security: Know Your Enemies

DISM Year 2 students won third prize in the “Capture The Flag” competition.

21 Aug 2009 - A team of Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM) Year 2 students won the third prize at the “Capture The Flag” (CtF) competition, which took place from 2nd – 3rd July 2009, as part of The Symposium on Security for Asia Network (SyScan) Conference 2009 held at Novotel Clarke Quay Hotel.

Our DISM Year 2 students, Cheah Kit Weng, Ishaan Singh and Mohamad Daniel Bin Hamid (also known as team Cyber Monkeys) had applied their Infocomm Security knowledge and skills in a competitive environment. The team was assigned with an "operational" network from the organizer with hardware-based firewall and computer servers. They were required to correct problems on their network, to perform computer hardening tasks on the servers, and to defend their network infrastructure from other teams that generated live and hostile attacks throughout the competition.

Said Ishaan, "It has been a complete learning experience for all of us. When we first went there, we had no idea what's going to happen and how are we to handle it. Eventually, we fell back to our basics that we have learned in our DISM course. We also got the much needed exposure in the field of Infocomm Security and could feel the importance of securing important assets. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. "

For their efforts and enthusiasm, the team was placed a credible third place in the competition as they faced challenges from other seasoned IT security practitioners as well as teams from other tertiary institution. This was the first time they participated in a major IT security competition and they were the only all student team among the top 3 winners. For the third placement, the team walked away with S$1,000 cash price

When East meets West Cultural Exchange Programme with students from U.K.

7 Aug 2009. A 4-member student team from the Faculty of Advanced Technology, University of Glamorgan, U.K., visited the school of Digital Media and Infocomm Technology (DMIT), Singapore Polytechnic, from 26 July to 7 August 2009. This is the first student exchange programme between the University of Glamorgan (UK) and students from the Diploma in Infocomm Security Management (DISM). The objectives of the exchange programme are to promote global learning and cultural exchanges.

During the visit, the exchange students participated in DMIT daily activities and classes. There were many opportunities for DISM students to interact with the exchange students outside the classrooms. Their friendships were cemented over soccer and badminton games. The exchange students also completed a project on Computer Forensics and presented the findings in one of the classes. They also conducted a seminar entitled “Computer Forensics and Expert Witness” to DISM students.

“It was an interesting experience to bring the fun-loving students from Cardiff, Wales, to see a bit of Singapore. It was fun to coax them to try our unique local food, like the runny soft boiled eggs and the kaya toast. We even talked a little about school work and exchanged some ideas, “ said Andre Ng, a final-year DISM student.

Besides the academic activities, the exchange students also experienced the rich cultural diversity of Singapore. The students visited various places such as Haw Par Villa, Sri Mariamman Temple, Chinatown, flea Market at Sungei Road, amongst others.

One of the highlights of the exchange programme was the Memorandum of Co-operation (MOC) signing ceremony held on 7th Aug 2009. The MOC was signed by Dr. Timothy Chan, Director, School of DMIT, Singapore Polytechnic and Dr. Andrew Ware, Head, Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Advanced Technology, University of Glamorgan.

The MOC will enable co-operation between Singapore Polytechnic and University of Glamorgan to encourage academic exchanges in various areas such as education and research; particularly in the areas of IT security and computer forensic.

Dr. Chan, “I trust that the MOC signed today will form the basis of a close and long-term partnership between School of DMIT and University of Glamorgan. We will work closely with Glamorgan to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by this new partnership.”

The signing of MOC also marked the last day of the first student exchange programme and the event ended with a sumptuous and delicious meal at SP RELAX@MOBERLY.

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About University of Glamorgan
The University of Glamorgan, U.K., was established in the year 1913. The campuses of the University are based in Glyntaff and Treforest both near the town of Pontypridd, Wales. There are around 21,500 students enrolled at the university which includes around 3,200 overseas students. Glamorgan’s graduates in computer forensics are popular with U.K. employers in the local and national police forces, business and government departments for their knowledge, experience and broad range of skills.

Welcome to SP-DISM Blog

Wlecome to the SP-DISM blog. The purpose of this blog is to publish the events and happening in Diploma in Information Security Management (DISM) course here in Singapore Polytechnic (SP). Hope the information is useful to those who are interested in knowing more about DISM.